Stubborn Heart - aka Luca Santucci & Ben Fitzgerald - set ears buzzing last year with a (then unidentified) white label 12” and followed it up earlier this summer with the ‘Need Someone’ EP (on Kaya Kaya records, an imprint of XL Recordings). Now signed to One Little Indian, their full length eponymous debut, Stubborn Heart (out in the US on March 5th) reveals a stunning and surprisingly poignant electronic soul record.
Hailing from London & Oxford respectively, the duo’s debut emotes heartbreak over broken beats and dark, atmospheric space. The clean, ghostly production coalesces with Luca’s mournful vocal to positively ooze a bruised melancholy.
Equally inspired by 80’s and 90’s electronic music and 60’s and 70’s soul music (the album includes a cover of Reuben Bell & The Casanovas rare soul 45 It’s Not That Easy), Stubborn Heart never lose their passion for good pop music – everything from Hall & Oates to Timbaland. Recent comparisons have been drawn with the XX, Sbtrkt, James Blake & Four Tet.
